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We’re excited to provide free access to 6 of over 50 (and growing) Theory of Constraints (TOC) manufacturing presentations ranging from a presentation on drum-buffer-rope and simplified drum-buffer-rope, to a comparison of TOC with lean and six sigma across several plants within the same corporation, to the implementations of TOC in very different environments. Actively synchronized replenishment is then discussed and a case study of this its implementation in a complex manufacturing environment is provided.

These applications were selected to build your TOC manufacturing knowledge from the concept of scheduling and control mechanisms from simple to more complex applications. These concepts are the underlying methodologies for the whole manufacturing supply chain. For example, note the use of time, space, and stock buffers across the various applications.

We have listed below the references and abstracts for the free presentations on this portal. In addition, we have provided a comprehensive annotated bibliography of ALL the manufacturing presentations and webinar videos currently in our archives. And, at the end of this annotated bibliography is a link to the TOC book list which includes a section on manufacturing and also supply chains.

We recognize that managing manufacturing environment where simple or complex has always presented a massive problem. Companies have spent billions of dollars on massive planning, scheduling and control information systems with little to no positive results. Even today ERP systems have over complicated the data needs to for effective management The organizations described in these presentations have made significant improvement by using the TOC philosophy to continuously improve. TOC is the best methodology for today BUT there will always be a need for continuous improvement. These tools are part of the journey to excellent manufacturing organizations.

Our hope is that you’ll learn from these 6 presentations and are moved to join TOCICO to gain access to the rest of our archives.

TOCICO membership includes:

FREE on-line access to all past TOCICO conference videos including the 29 additional manufacturing videos – there are several hundred videos starting with the second conference in 2004. These were previously sold for $149 per conference (totaling $1,788), but now, viewing ALL of them are INCLUDED with your membership.

Discounts on TOCICO products and conference attendance.

FREE access to the over 50 recorded webinars by some of your favorite TOC authors.

FREE registration to all new webinars – and just wait until you hear what’s in the works!

FREE pdf of the TOCICO Dictionary – 135 pages of pure content.

All 6 Strategy & Tactics trees by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Over 20 Theory of Constraints articles with more on the way.

And, access to networking with the TOC community around the world on the TOCICO website. Build your page, start discussions, or contact another member – the new TOCICO website is web 2.0 ready and ready for you to engage.

This presentation provides an overview of theory of constraints, lean and six sigma. A case study is presented where the effects of using the trio of theory of constraints, lean, and six sigma (TLS); lean alone and six sigma alone is conducted. The use of TOC to guide lean and six sigma use was significantly better than either lean or six sigma alone. Lessons learned are also presented. The purpose of the study was to determine how to best optimize profits. To achieve that objective we needed to compare and contrast methodologies and evaluate and statistically quantify the impact of each. Based on the results we wanted to deploy the best method. The results of twenty-one plants were compared: eleven used six sigma, four used lean and six used TLS. The results of comparing lean and six sigma were insignificant. The difference between TLS and lean and six sigma was highly significant (P-value =0.000.). While TLS, lean and six sigma all offered benefits, TLS showed 3.9 times greater financial benefit than the other two. A model of how the three methodologies fit together is provided.

The organization of this presentation is to provide a description of Prince Manufacturing and its problems, the theory of constraints solution, the implementation approach, the results and the lessons learned. Prince Manufacturer was formed in 1950 and now has five plants making welded and tie-rod cylinders, mono block and sectional valves, pumps and low speed, high torque motors (ISO 9001 certified). They sell direct to large original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and use 18 distributors for small OEMs and catalog sales. The company experienced minimal growth and flat profitability over the past 3 years. They investigated TOC as they were frustrated with the status quo; they intuitively knew there was a better way as they had some knowledge of The Goal, and wanted to consider that a Viable Vision (VV) might exist. The TOC solution included: guaranteed on-time availability and rapid response. The secondary offer to distributors was vender managed inventory (VMI) and availability of high volume products. The solution for sales steps of the SFS process consisted of creating the offer, synchronization between operations and sales, training, delivering the offer, managing the pipeline and leveraging the offer are described in detail for each market segment. Results include offers accepted grew from less than 20% to over 80%. The pipeline expanded 10 fold in six months. The solution for sales now represents 70% of current sales. Lessons learned include: sales can never start too early, not all sales people are equal, identify and implement measures early, etc.

This presentation describes the background of the Viable Vision (VV) implementation at Neuland Labs. The analysis of the various stages of implementation, lessons learned, corrections made, and results achieved are provided. Neuland is an API manufacturer (make the active ingredients that go into many medicines) doing contract research and contract manufacturing with two US FDA/EU/TGA/PMDA approved manufacturing facilities. Neuland has a 40,000 square foot stat-of-the-art R&D facility with 185 scientists in R&D and over 1500 total employees; and export to 85 countries. Over 80% of its business is conducted in US and Europe. Neuland entered into the Viable Vision (VV) in 2006 was initially based on the strategy and tactics (S&T) tree based on the vendor managed inventory (VMI) solution but changed to reliability and rapid response (RRR) S&T tree solution. At the beginning of the implementation capacity became totally booked; this required a massive elevation of capacity requiring significant capital investment. The API environment includes long touch times, regulatory issues, unstable processes, and long approval cycles. Additionally sales and marketing were not aligned with operations. Top management has to give 100% commitment to the VV project. Getting the right measurement system is the key to the VV. Throughput and due date performance (OTIF-on time in full) are made primary measures and the bonuses of employees are linked to these measures. The S&T tree must be tailored to the individual environment. You must recognize that you must understand the old environment as many times what they are doing is right and not based on the old paradigm. Release control, daily buffer management (BM), BM priority system, emphasis on full kit and preparations were essential to implementing the S&T tree. Eli Goldratt discusses the presentation and the one page report that give you the dashboard for projects; this same visibility is not available in distribution and production. When we have a deviation we need input from different functions. We need the organizational S&T.

Actively Synchronized Replenishment (ASR) provides a no-compromise materials synchronization solution for manufacturers regardless of their preferred manufacturing methodology. The heart of its power is simple - material and component availability even in complex environments is tied to actual consumption while maintaining critical visibility with regard to available stock and the bill of material (BOM). This is essential to support pull-based scheduling and execution systems such as lean, and the drum-buffer-rope technique of the TOC; but it also offers the potential for major performance improvement in companies which use MRP in a traditional scheduling environment. if you are frustrated with the compromises and obstacles forced into your environment through the use of MRP, this session is a must.

Debra Smith describes her company (Constraint Management Group, CMG) niche of mid-sized companies. She describes one of her first implementations in 1999. The results include: three months from setting the strategic direction of the company they went live across the board; the first month they shipped 40% more than their previous record breaking month (shipped everything in their backlog); the second month they shipped everything their dealers ordered 98% on-time delivery (OTD). The dealers had been ordering five hoping for three (the good old beer game); lead time reduction from 90 days to 2 – 10 days (product dependent); inventory reductions in excess of $36 million in plant inventory; major capital investment deferment; and in sourcing of several million dollars of business. A second case is provided. In 2001 a mid-sized ($1 billion) wood product supply chain approached CMG about implementing TOC. Their core problem was to A Maximize tree company’s ROI they must B Maximize ROI in timber which caused actions to D Manage timber and timberland as a profit center on the other hand they must B Maximize ROI in manufacturing facilities which caused actions to D’ Manage manufacturing as a profit center. This is the local optima dilemma. The solution involved the elimination of both transfer pricing and the allocation of corporate overhead between plants, business units and product lines. An internal supply chain throughput points decision model was constructed for decision making on buy and sell logs. Results include: Reductions in inventory in excess of $50M (>35%); ROI from .5% (the past best ever was 4%) to 15% in 12 months, 19% last year; 20% Increased volume in plywood with 1.5 less plants (450 less employees) within the first six months; OTD from mid-40’s to mid-90’s (measured against a mixed product shipment); Lead time from 14 days to 2 days. The year after implementing they shipped 40% more throughput with 30% less logs and one less plant (the plant was very old and set up for old growth timber the decision to scrap it versus retool could finally be made because of the tremendous increased capacity unleashed). Remember the scarce resource is the log and if they don’t cut it - it keeps getting bigger! We took the concept of sorting logs to the forests and planned their cuts by the characteristics the forest harvest would deliver.

Our hope is that you will learn from these six presentations and are moved to join TOCICO to gain access to the rest of our archives.

TOCICO membership includes:

FREE on-line access to all past TOCICO conference videos including the 29 additional manufacturing videos – there are several hundred videos starting with the second conference in 2004. These were previously sold for $149 per conference (totaling $1,788), but now, viewing ALL of them are INCLUDED with your membership.

Discounts on TOCICO products and conference attendance.

FREE access to the over 50 recorded webinars by some of your favorite TOC authors.

FREE registration to all new webinars – and just wait until you hear what’s in the works!

FREE pdf of the TOCICO Dictionary – 135 pages of pure content.

All 6 Strategy & Tactics trees by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Over 20 Theory of Constraints articles with more on the way.

And, access to networking with the TOC community around the world on the TOCICO website. Build your page, start discussions, or contact another member – the new TOCICO website is web 2.0 ready and ready for you to engage.